Thanks to everyone. This was a tough Dakar for me work wise. I couldn't spare near the time I intended or wanted to and quite frankly, I didn't even try to keep up with this thread post wise. I lurked through every post, but mostly stuck to my twitter feed as you all have it well covered here. Big kudos to all the other mods that kept the cliff's notes up to date and steaming along and it's great to see everyone chiming in. The sheer increase in available information from so many different sources shows how much this has grown.

Going from literally no information other that what we could pull from dakar.com and then updates from Charlie when he returned to just about damn near real time updates for almost any rider is sheer madness in such a short time. Nice job everyone, really nice job.

Ruben says he doesn't have a [KTM] contract for Dakar 2014 - so could this be a thinly veiled pitch to team up with Helder next year? - two top riders from Portugal on the same team? - that should help bring in the escudos!!! (sorry, Euros now...)

Jx

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Well, it is still euros . Our economy is on the floor for ever and we risk getting kicked out of the euro. I wouldn't count on any significant sponsorship for a Dakar team.

I don't give much about national pride, but the point about nationality is a big one. If you are lucky enough to have a passport from a strong economic power I guess it makes it easier to find a sponsorship. If you're portuguese you represent a bankrupt economy of 10 million people, period. The fact that pilots like Ruben Faria, Helder Rodrigues and Paulo Gonçalves manage to find means to consistently place in the top 10 of Dakar speaks volumes about their value as pilots and about their determination. to them.

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Following this thread was an epic challenge for me this year. I was offline during the day and read every post every evening, starting usually more than 100 pages behind! I missed being able to follow the stages live, the best I could manage was a peek at Mischa's monitor on the iphone at lunch time (thank you thank you thank you, Mischa!). But I had a lot of fun reading everything later on, imagining the excitment live. Lots of great humour on the thread, thank you everyone for your contributions on that front as well as on the great info presented. It is great to share this passion with people from everywhere around the globe! I'll see you around at the Bivouac!

As already whispered BMW Motorrad sells its subsidiary Husqvarna Motorcycles, KTM but not to the personal business of its CEO Stefan Pierer called Pierer Industries AG. The consequences for Pierers role as CEO of KTM is still unclear and will in the next six time be sought out. It is obvious that the European competition authorities to interfere with this, but also the chance that Pierer abundantly present his position at KTM will resign. For some time Pierer still the CEO of the Austrian motorcycle company, but a large part of the shares therein are sold to the Indian motorcycle giant Bajaj. Purchasing Husqvarna Pierer would potentially enable again completely with a clean slate to start again.

There will be viewed in the coming months if there is any form of cooperation between KTM and Husqvarna is possible, there is at least already a new model announced at the EICMA 2013 already will be shown

This morning we reported that KTM is not in the market to buy Husqvarna, this would also not very logical step. For BMW ensures the sale of Husqvarna for substantially losing face. The German company pumped millions into the Italian Husqvarna, but could never make a success of.

The following chart is from Cross Industries Ltd, the company which Bajaj for almost half owner. It now owns Husqvarna said Pierer Industries AG makes no part of it.

So if Google translate is to be believed, Peirer sells his remaining shares in KTM to Bajaj and goes forth to resurrect Husky. Makes more sense, especially the part about the European anti-trust authorities